The Backyard Bee Story
Once upon a time a women from Santa Ana, California sought to relocate bees that were setting up house"keeping" in her backyard...
Where Would We Bee...?
Backyard Bees was founded by two woman gardeners. Six years ago, Janet Andrews discovered that honeybees had made a hive in her home's attic. Janet’s love of nature, gardens and fruit bearing trees led her to seek an alternative to chemical extermination.
After trying to locate a service, with no avail, that would not destroy the squatting critters from her attic, she came upon a traditional, local, beekeeper who offered a far more humane option. After relocating the live attic bees into a wooden hive box, that’s when Janet was hooked.
With the help and experience of the beekeeper and by doing extensive research, Janet was soon ready to manage the bees herself. Soon after, however, she learned that her grandson who lived next door was highly allergic to bee stings. It was this event that led her to the backyard gardens of friends and neighbors who were all too eager to host a hive and receive pollination and honey in return.
Kelly Yrarrazaval, also a gardener and food lover, found bees on her property. After hearing about a local woman who knew about bees, she soon found herself “suited up” in beekeeper garb, assisting Janet, while they both removed a hive from a fence in her garden. Janet came over periodically to manage the hive for Kelly, leaving jars of honey and beeswax lip balm on her doorstep. This experience solidified Kelly's commitment to bees and beekeeping and teamed up with Janet to form a bee rescue group. Originally named Backyard Beekeepers, it was then changed to BeeCause (the corporate name).
Two local newspapers, the OC Weekly and the Orange County Register picked up the story of these two local beekeepers. The response from the public over the front-page stories were overwhelming! Janet and Kelly, who started beekeeping as a hobby, realized there was an urgent public need to provide an alternative to extermination and to keep hives actively pollinating and producing honey in local communities. Thus a company was formed (BeeCause) doing business as Backyard Bees. The rest is history in the making!
We hope you'll be part of the Backyard Bees community. Visit us on Facebook.
The Bee Team
- Janet Andrews: Co-Founder, Operations Director
- Kelly Yrarrázaval: Co-Founder, Managing Director
- Bill Walter: Head Beekeeper
